Successful TV franchises have a long, chilling history of birthing video games. Unlike the classic RPGs and fighting games that take years to conceptualize, plan, and produce, TV-inspired video games are often rushed, leading to patchy animation, ungodly graphics, and really repetitive and/or awkward gameplay. In commemoration of the new video game version of Deadliest Catch (or as I call it: Harder Fishin') we explore five of our favorite misfit adaptations.
American Idol
Before these fancy Karoake Revolution Presents: American Idol games came out, Randy Jackson zealots were forced to play along with Idol by jamming buttons to the beat of hit songs to earn judges' praise. If you liked "Livin' La Vida Loca" before, you'll appreciate its subtle artistry after you stamp out "Her skin's the color of mocha" with your bruised thumbs. Look how ebullient Randy, Paula, and Simon are on the cover! They look like they stepped out of another game completely, like, perhaps, Anticipation.
Home Improvement
Would you fight mummies on behalf of Binford Tools? I'm on the fence. In 1994, at the height of Home Improvement's ratings, Absolute Entertainment released a Super Nintendo iteration of the Tim Allen series where Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor fought mummies, dinosaurs, and robots in order to recover supplies taken from the set of Tool Time. The game famously did not include an instruction manual, instead opting to present its players with a flash screen that said, "Real men don't need instructions." I didn't play far enough to find out if the final boss was the terrifying, medieval gawk of Patricia Richardson.
Little Britain
The inundation of video games featuring "mini-games" is worthy of sociological inquiry. Who keeps caring to shell out 50 clams to play parlor games? The 2007 Playstation 2 version of Little Britain is just a melange of dinky, tedious games. Vicky Pollard (Matt Lucas) runs around a park and collects CDs! Daffyd (also Matt Lucas) rips off Paperboy and picks up copies of Gay Times from the streets! A Pac-Man retread featuring Marjorie Dawes (Uh, also, Matt Lucas -- I swear David Williams is in here somewhere) eating donuts! Not that Little Britain even seemed right for gameplay in the first place, but this release just proves that developers will steal concepts even when their program is allegedly marketable in its own right.
VIP
Pamela Anderson's long-lasting action series (four seasons and 88 episodes) ended up producing video games for a number of consoles, including Game Boy Advance and Playstation. This occurred when graphics didn't allow Lara Croft's boob-jiggle to harmonize with the rattle of her MP5, so horny preteens couldn't make Pam leap off cliffs to watch her rack soar and expand.
The X-Files
Rarely does a video game based on a TV show act too big for its paranormal britches, but that was just the case with the first Playstation version of The X-Files. While truly epic games like Final Fantasy VII warranted a three-disc package, The X-Files came with seven CD-ROMs. Peter Jackson, you have nothing on this shit. While this release has its defenders (some even herald it), the bottom line is you couldn't play as Mulder or Scully, let alone force them to make out mid-investigation. Some of us still have hope for a refund. And a vindicated childhood.